Pancika

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Pancika (left) and Hariti (right), holding a cornucopia, 3rd century CE, Takht-i Bahi, British Museum.
Pancika (left) and Hariti (right), holding a cornucopia, 3rd century CE, Takht-i Bahi, British Museum.

Pancika (Chinese:般闍迦) was the consort of the Buddhist goddess of children, Hariti. He is himself a Buddhist god, and is said to have fathered 500 children.

He was the commander-in-chief of the Yakṣa army of Vaiśravaṇa (Bishamonten), and had another 27 Yakṣa generals under his orders.

Pancika was often represented together with Hariti in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, where they illustrated marital love following the intervention of the Buddha.

"The Yakṣas are commanded by 28 generals, of whom the chief is Pancika — according to the Mahavamsa, he was the father of the 500 sons of Hariti [Kishimojin]. Worshipped very early in India (some of his representations are found in Gandhara and in northern India) as well as in Java, this general of the Yakṣas was soon merged with Vaiśravaṇa." (The Flammarion Iconographic Guide to Buddhism)


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